Q: In a wrongful death case can you seek the wages the person would have earned in their lifetime?
A:
In Texas and the wrongful death statute provides the basis for the wrongful death lawsuits. In effect, a wrongful death case is the person's personal loss of their family member. So it is not as easy as calculating the lost wages of the decedent. Pecuniary losses are provided for and those include the loss of care, maintenance, support, services, advice, counsel and reasonable contributions of a pecuniary value that the wrongful death claimant would have received from the decedent. Additionally, loss of companionship and society is a big element of a wrongful death case and mental anguish for the loss is an element of damage.
Loss of inheritance is also covered which is the amount of money that the estate of the decedent would have left to the claimant.
In short, the law could never bring back the decedent and it tries to allow damages for what the family member would have received from the decedent and also for their mental damages from the loss.
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